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You could see if your city has a recycling facility you can drop off your items at instead of putting them out for pickup. Also some of those centers take in more things then what can be picked up. We usually bulk up and take one trip a month with everything.

Maffei-
Exactly what I was going to suggest. My curbside recycling will only accept a limited number of things, but the recycling dropoff center will accept nearly anything that can possibly be recycled.

COME ON

You are being ridiculous...are you seriously worried about this! When I used to live in Boston people would "steal" our recycling. Do you think someone who obviously needs the 5 or 10 cents per can or bottle will single-handedly bring down the whole city's recycling program!

I think your fears are based on a few misconceptions. Cities don't normally make any money on recycling programs and recycling is generally more expensive than landfill space. ( http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/must_recycle.htm ) So when a city decides to recycle economic gain or even breaking even is not the key factor. Your city recycles because either the citizens or the movers and shakers think they should.

Also aluminum and glass are easier for an individual to convert to cash, but at an institutional level they are far less lucrative.

The way I see it you have two choices... Either sell all those items yourself and donate it to your recycling program. Or my favorite... Put all the glass and aluminum in one bag, add a PB&J sandwich, and note that says "Good morning, see you next Tuesday! :)" If he's rummaging through your recyclables then he could use a break.

This isn't theoretical for those of us who live in Bostonland; it's a reality of every trash day. I have no problem with it.

People who scavenge for bottles to return for deposit are just doing what I would if I were not lazy or busy--and then it would be *me* making profit from the "most profitable" portions of my recycling load rather than the city. The bottles are recycled either way.

I don't know about the costs and profits of associated with a city running a curbside bin program, so I cannot speak to whether or not taking the bottles out of the mix for a city affects what it spends or makes on the program (note to labchick - it's not just some*one*; it's many, many people removing the 5 to 10 cent bottles from the stream such that all bottles might be removed from the city's program). It would be helpful--necessary, even--to see some numbers on this. If the situation's really bugging you, you could do a little digging with your city to see what impact, if any, the 'reclamation' and redirection of these bottles from the city's stream to a personal stream has on the city's profit and loss on the program. What portion of the nickel-per-bottle does the city retain as profit (if any?) if it collects the bottle; what portion of the nickel-per-bottle does the scavenger retain as profit?

Of course, there is also the further consideration that though the *city* might get the money from bottles left for it to recycle (less the cost of collecting and recycling), there are other people and businesses in the city that get the money collected by these precycling scavengers (who pay nothing--or very little, if you factor in the cost to them of the collection method or time--to collect other people's "trash").

This recalls the underground operations/economy of the steel scavenging trucks that troll the alleys of Chicago and the very complex hierarchy of trashpickers I saw at work in Chennai and Mumbai a few summers ago; this kind of extra-system processing is really interesting and, I think, advantageous in most settings.

But then, I don't have the numbers. Someone call Malcom Gladwell!

i registered for a re-nest account just to register my discomfort with the way this question was handled. if someone is picking through trash, they probably need money. and what is the purpose of a city having a budget if not to provide for its citizens? what is wrong with the citizens providing for themselves? it's not really stealing since it's "trash" anyway. good lord, posting this question in the worst recession since the depression is really, in my view, tasteless. makes me sad and doesn't really make me want to get behind green if this is what the priorities of the movement come down to.

The issue for me wouldn't be the actual pilfering, but the problem of having a stranger on my property in the night making noise and waking me up.

I realize it is not just " one" person who does this, but I never really thought that cities made money off recycling, I assumed that they all got to the same location and if a homeless/poor person made some money off it thats fine. Frankly it is for the city to worry about, if they were really losing lots of money I'm sure they would come up with a different system.

If you have actually seen any of these people (some of them with their kids) picking through your garbage you would probably not be worrying about the city losing its recycling money. Its a pretty pathetic and sad sight.

I have to second what labchick is saying, here. In my city, we have the option of leaving depositable bottles out with our recycling (for either the waste-management company contracted by the city to collect or for bottle-pickers to collect) or taking them to the depot ourselves. Alberta Views Magazine had a great article a few years ago profiling bottle-pickers. Often, a day of bottle picking can generate more income than a day of unskilled temp labour. The bottle-pickers are people who are filling an economic niche (I'd rather not take my bottles to the depot, the city pays their waste management company by volume), so we should appreciate them rather than look down upon them.

Where cities most benefit financially from increased recycling is from the shift away from landfill garbage, space for which is very scarce (note that some cities, such as Toronto, are forced to *truck* their landfill waste to far-away municipalities at a huge cost).

If you want to reduce the noise, I suggest making things easier for the bottle-pickers: put your depositable recycling in a seperate blue-box (or bag if your city uses bags instead) so that they do not have to dig through all your recycling to find them. I've done this for years. Sometimes, when the contracted out waste-management company is negligent about picking up recycling on the specified day (irritatingly, this happens every 2 to 3 months), the depositable recycling is the only thing that's gone.

You know, here in SF, it's a problem not with the homeless guy down the street rifling through your trash but whole gangs of people. Organized groups, not just one guy. And some cities, especially land-hungry ones like SF save a bundle on recycling instead of landfill costs. Before the economy tanked, they did actually make money as the scrap was in high demand (and I really REALLY wish I could remember where I saw that article, I swear it was just last week).

As for getting woken up, I'd say put your recycling out in the morning, after the rummager has come through. You'd be up anyway, at least this way it's a little later.

I really think that if we live in a society where people have to collect cans and bottles to survive (or get an extra income) than the more power to them! I just see them and feel thankful that I'm not going through someone's recycling bin.

I will pull about 40% of our cans and bottles aside and give them to our gardener who is really thankful for them. I know our landlord doesn't pay this guy enough and Louis is very nice.

I know for a fact that Minneapolis makes a considerable amount of money off of its recycling program (that may very well go toward community welfare).
I also wouldn't assume that said person is homeless - in my neighborhood, it'd probably be one of the stingy retirees across the alley who has plenty of money but nothing better to do that early in the morning. I would admittedly be pretty ticked - I have to clean, sort, and bundle every little thing to a ridiculous degree for the city to even accept it (I guess that's how they turn a profit...). I want that money going into the public coffers, not someone's pocket.

Growing up, we would leave recyclables bagged separately on our porch for a man who we knew made his living from recycling. This was before recycling programs.

The annoying thing was the people that would come and dig through our trash to find recyclables that were not there - not because they would dig, but because they would spill garbage all over the street as they rifled through the cans.

Take what you want, I say, but don't make a mess I have to clean up.

My view on this is that the city *does* make money off recycling (I live in NYC, and when Mayor Bloomberg came into office he cancelled our recycling program, to the horror of many. Turns out that the city was paying to have ppl take the recycling away, but once he was able to find buyers for recyclables, the recycling program was reinstated).

And i completely understand people's concerns about the folks that dig through recycling because they need the money. And while i agree that i pay taxes so that the city has money to fund programs to help these people, i don't think its fair to put our recycling program at risk because of individual needs. Should the government help out? Yes. But that's not something folks should take into their own hands by stealing recycling.

And yes, it is stealing. I'm pretty sure digging through someone's trash is illegal in some way, whether is petit larceny or trespassing.

mh330, it depends on your area and where you are leaving the trash as to whether it is illegal or not for someone to go through it. As an example, if it is out on the curb, not behind a gate/fence/enclosed space, then it is not necessarily illegal. Also, some areas consider taking items meant for recycling to be stealing, but not items meant for trash. I really think this is a little silly. The items are being recycled one way or the other, and if it is really that heavy a concern, then take the recycling to the facility yourself.
(And consider yourself lucky that you even have the option to put it out- in my neighborhood, they still will not allow curbside recycling because they don't think enough people would participate in this part of town.)

I also live in SF and the gangs that steal the recycling here are sometimes violent when confronted by business owners and residents asking them to stop. Police should be called and license plate #'s given, it's too dangerous to approach them directly.

In a newsletter from Golden Gate Disposal they address the issues of enviro impact, financial loss and disturbances to residents and businesses. The link:

http://www.sunsetscavenger.com/pdf/SFRecyclingApril2008.pdf

These gangs are NOT helpless victims of circumstance who end up on the street. If you leave a sandwich out for them watch your step the next morning as you walk through the garbage they leave strewn all over the sidewalk or you'll be scraping peanut butter off your shoe.

Finally, registered!

The ideas that "it's all recycled anyway" or that you shouldn't worry about this don't address the issue of the post.

The short answer is that there isn't really a whole lot you can do. I'm assuming you'd rather not make trips to the recycling center. The best suggestion so far appears to be placing valuable recyclables in a separate, easy-to-carry sack. I may actually do this myself, until I run out bags.

That said, you'll probably hear your neighbors' bins being sorted through at 5.30 am anyway.

--

I live in Los Angeles, and here we have multiple, roving groups of people that visit our neighborhood throughout the week just for a crack at what's in our bins. Unfortunately, we had a few people willing to turn something that shouldn't be into a problem for everyone.

Due to an increase in frequency of visits and an odd rash of pretty brazen behavior by people scavenging, our local recycling dropoff agreed to remain closed on Sundays ( last day before trash pickup ), as well as shift location from a high-visibility spot in a parking lot to one that was more discreet.

I'm a firm believer in the benefits of municipal refuse collecting, particularly since while I give the city my glass, I can also give them my fallen branches, hair trimmings and yogurt cartons. I also believe that anybody who'd like to collect materials WITH THE CONSENT OF THE PROPERTY RESIDENTS / BUSINESS OWNERS should do so.

I personally think that you should only contact the police in reference to repeat offenders who are belligerent or violent. I'd also recommend that you discuss this with your neighbors. The "early bird" that puts you off may have the consent of your nearest neighbors.